[1] No satisfactory etymology of the name has been given; although
the first part is usually referred to [Greek: aphros] ("the sea
foam"), it is equally probable that it is of Eastern origin. F.
Homoll (_Jahrbucher fur classische Philologie_, cxxv., 1882) explains
it as a corruption of Ashtoreth; for other derivations see O. Gruppe,
_Griechische Mythologie_, ii. p. 1348, note 2.
APHTHONIUS, of Antioch, Greek sophist and rhetorician, flourished in the
second half of the 4th century A.D., or even later. Nothing is known of
his life, except that he was a friend of Libanius and of a certain
Eutropius, perhaps the author of the epitome of Roman history. We
possess by him [Greek: Progumnhasmata], a text-book on the elements of
rhetoric, with exercises for the use of the young before they entered
the regular rhetorical schools. They apparently formed an introduction
to the [Greek: Thechne] of Hermogenes. His style is pure and simple, and
ancient critics praise his "Atticism." The book maintained its
popularity as late as the 17th century, especially in Germany. A
collection of forty fables by Aphthonius, after the style of Aesop, is
also extant.
Spengel, _Rhetores Graeci_, ii.; Finckh, _Aphthonii Progytnnasmata_
(1865); Hoppichler, _De Theone, Hermogene, Aphthonioque
Pro-gymnasmatum Scriptoribus_ (1884); edition of the fables by Furia
(1810).
APHTHONIUS, AELIUS FESTUS, Latin grammarian, possibly of African origin,
lived in the 4th century A.D. He wrote a metrical handbook in four
books, which has been incorporated by Marius Victorinus in his system of
grammar.
Keil, _Gratnmatici Latini_, vi.; Schultz, _Quibus Auctoribus Aelius
Festus Aphthonius usus sit_ (1885).
APICIUS, the name of three celebrated Roman epicures. The second of
these, M. Gavius Apicius, who lived under Tiberius, is the most famous
(Seneca, Consol. ad Helviam, 10). He invented various cakes and sauces,
and is said to have written on cookery. The extant _De Re Coquinaria_
(ed. Schuch, 1874), a collection of receipts, ascribed to one Caelius
Apicius, is founded on Greek originals, and belongs to the 3rd century
A.D. It is probable that the real title was Caelii _Apicius_, Apicius
being the name of the work (cp. Taciti _Agricola_), and _De Re
Coquinaria_ a sub-title.
APICULTURE (from Lat. _apis_, a bee), bee-keeping (see BEE). So also
other compounds of _api_-. _Apiarium_ or apiary, a bee-house or hive, is
used figuratively by old writers for a place of industry, e.g. a
college.
APION, Greek grammarian and commentator on Homer, born at Oasis in
Libya, flourished in the first half of the 1st century A.D. He studied
at Alexandria, and headed a deputation sent to Caligula (in 38) by the
Alexandrians to complain of the Jews: his charges were answered by
Josephus in his _Contra Apionem_. He settled at Rome--it is uncertain
when--and taught rhetoric till the reign of Claudius. Apion was a man of
great industry and learning, but extremely vain. He wrote several works,
which are lost. The well-known story of Androclus and the lion,
preserved in Aulus Gellius, is from his [Greek: Aiguptiaka]; fragments
of his [Greek: Ilossy Omerikai] are printed in the _Etymologicum
Gudianum_, ed. Sturz, 1818.
APIS or HAPIS, the sacred bull of Memphis, in Egyptian _Hp, Hope, Hope_.
By Manetho his worship is said to have been instituted by Kaiechos of
the Second Dynasty. Hape is named on very early monuments, but little is
known of the divine animal before the New Kingdom. He was entitled "the
renewal of the life" of the Memphite god Ptah: but after death he became
Osorapis, i.e. the Osiris Apis, just as dead men were assimilated to
Osiris, the king of the underworld. This Osorapis was identified with
Serapis, and may well be really identical with him (see SERAPIS): and
Greek writers make the Apis an incarnation of Osiris, ignoring the
connexion with Ptah. Apis was the most important of all the sacred
animals in Egypt, and, like the others, its importance increased as time
went on. Greek and Roman authors have much to say about Apis, the marks
by which the black bull-calf was recognized, the manner of his
conception by a ray from heaven, his house at Memphis with court for
disporting himself, the mode of prognostication from his actions, the
mourning at his death, his costly burial and the rejoicings throughout
the country when a new Apis was found. Mariette's excavation of the
Serapeum at Memphis revealed the tombs of over sixty animals, ranging
from the time of Amenophis III. to that of Ptolemy Alexander. At first
each animal was buried in a separate tomb with a chapel built above it.
Khamuis, the priestly son of Rameses II. (c. 1300 B.C.), excavated a
great gallery to be lined with the tomb chambers; another similar
gallery was added by Psammetichus I. The careful statement of the ages
of the animals in the later instances, with the regnal dates for their
birth, enthronization and death have thrown much light on the chronology
from the XXIInd dynasty onwards. The name of the mother-cow and the
place of birth are often recorded. The sarcophagi are of immense size,
and the burial must have entailed enormous expense. It is therefore
remarkable that the priests contrived to bury one of the animals in the
fourth year of Cambyses.
See Jablonski, _Pantheon_, ii.; Budge, _Gods of the Egyptians_, ii.
350; Mariette-Maspero, _Le Serapeum de Memphis_. (F. Ll. G.)
APLITE, in petrology, the name given to intrusive rock in which quartz
and felspar are the dominant minerals. Aplites are usually very
fine-grained, white, grey or flesh-coloured, and their constituents are
visible only with the help of a magnifying lens. Dykes and threads of
aplite are very frequently to be observed traversing granitic bosses;
they occur also, though in less numbers, in syenites, diorites,
quartz-diabases and gabbros. Without doubt they have usually a genetic
affinity to the rocks they intersect. The aplites of granite areas, for
example, are the last part of the magma to crystallize, and correspond
in composition to the quartzo-felspathic aggregates which fill up the
interspaces between the early minerals in the main body of the rock.
They bear a considerable resemblance to the eutectic mixtures which are
formed on the cooling of solutions of mineral salts, and remain liquid
till the excess of either of the components has separated out, finally
solidifying _en masse_ when the proper proportions of the constituents
and a suitable temperature are reached. The essential components of the
aplites are quartz and alkali felspar (the latter usually orthoclase or
microperthite). Crystallization has been apparently rapid (as the rocks
are so fine-grained), and the ingredients have solidified almost at the
same time. Hence their crystals are rather imperfect and fit closely to
one another in a sort of fine mosaic of nearly equi-dimensional grains.
Porphyritic felspars occur occasionally and quartz more seldom; but the
relation of the aplites to quartz-porphyries, granophyres and felsites
is very close, as all these rocks have nearly the same chemical
composition. Yet the aplites associated with diorites and
quartz-diabases differ in minor respects from the common aplites, which
accompany granites. The accessory minerals of these rocks are
principally oligoclase, muscovite, apatite and zircon. Biotite and all
ferromagnesian minerals rarely appear in them, and never are in
considerable amount. Riebeckite-granites (paisanites) have close
affinities to aplites, shown especially in the prevalence of alkali
felspars. Tourmaline also occurs in some aplites. The rocks of this
group are very frequent in all areas where masses of granite are known.
They form dykes and irregular veins which may be only a few inches or
many feet in diameter. Less frequently aplite forms stocks or bosses, or
occupies the edges or irregular portions of the interior of outcrops of
granite. The syenite-aplites consist mainly of alkali felspar; the
diorite-aplites of plagioclase; there are nepheline-bearing aplites
which intersect some elaeolite-syenites. In all cases they bear the same
relation to the parent masses. By increase of quartz aplites pass
gradually, in a few localities, through highly quartzose modifications
(beresite, &c.) into quartz veins. (J. S. F.)
APNOEA (Gr. [Greek: apnoia], from [Greek: a-], privative, [Greek:
pneein], to breathe), a technical term for suspension of breathing.
APOCALYPSE (Gr. [Greek: apokalupsis], disclosure), a term applied to the
disclosure to certain privileged persons of something hidden from the
mass of men. The Greek root corresponds in the Septuagint to the Heb.
_galah_, to reveal. The last book of the New Testament bears in Greek
the title [Greek: Apokalypsis Ioannou], and is frequently referred to as
the Apocalypse of John, but in the English Bible it appears as the
Revelation of St John the Divine (see REVELATION). Earlier among the
hellenistic Jews the term was used of a number of writings which
depicted in a prophetic and parabolic way the end or future state of the
world (e.g. _Apocalypse of Baruch_), the whole class is now commonly
known as Apocalyptic Literature (q.v.).
APOCALYPSE, KNIGHTS OF THE, a secret society founded in Italy in 1693 to
defend the church against the expected Antichrist. Agostino Gabrino, the
son of a merchant of Brescia, was its founder. On Palm Sunday 1693, when
the choir of St Peter's was chanting _Quis est iste Rex Gloriae?_
Gabrino sword in hand, rushed to the altar crying _Ego sum Rex Gloriae._
Though Gabrino was treated as a madman, the society flourished, until a
member denounced it to the Inquisition, who arrested the knights. Though
chiefly mechanics they always carried swords even when at work, and wore
on their breasts a star with seven rays. Gabrino styled himself monarch
of the Holy Trinity. He was credited by his enemies with a desire to
introduce polygamy.
APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE. The Apocalyptic literature of Judaism and
Christianity embraces a considerable period, from the centuries
following the exile down to the close of the middle ages. In the present
survey we shall limit ourselves to the great formative periods in this
literature--in Judaism to 200 B.C. to A.D. 100, and in Christianity to
A.D. 50 to 350 or thereabouts.
The transition from prophecy to apocalyptic ([Greek: apokalyptein], to
reveal something hidden) was gradual and already accomplished within the
limits of the Old Testament. Beginning in the bosom of prophecy, and
steadily differentiating itself from it in its successive developments,
it never came to stand in absolute contrast to it. Apocalyptical
elements disclose themselves in the prophetical books of Ezekiel, Joel,
Zechariah, while in Isaiah xxiv.-xxvii. and xxxiii. we find
well-developed apocalypses; but it is not until we come to Daniel that
we have a fully matured and classical example of this class of
literature. The way, however, had in an especial degree been prepared
for the apocalyptic type of thought and literature by Ezekiel, for with
him the word of God had become identical with a written book (ii. 9-iii.
3) by the eating of which he learnt the will of God, just as primitive
man conceived that the eating of the tree in Paradise imparted spiritual
knowledge. When the divine word is thus conceived as a written message,
the sole office of the prophet is to communicate what is written. Thus
the human element is reduced to zero, and the conception of prophecy
becomes mechanical. And as the personal element disappears in the
conception of the prophetic calling, so it tends to disappear in the
prophetic view of history, and the future comes to be conceived not as
the organic result of the present under the divine guidance, but as
mechanically determined from the beginning in the counsels of God, and
arranged under artificial categories of time. This is essentially the
apocalyptic conception of history, and Ezekiel may be justly represented
as in certain essential aspects its founder in Israel.
We shall now consider (I.) Apocalyptic, its origin and general
characteristics; (II.) Old Testament Apocalyptic; (III.) New Testament
Apocalyptic.